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Going for a song

Tom Robinson on Public Enemy’s Bring the Noise

During the 1980s, I’d failed to recognise the significance of rap music as utterly as my parents’ generation had failed to understand rock’n’roll.

It sounded merely like stroppy louts shouting doggerel over loops of music stolen from other people. Even the Beastie Boys had fallen on my uncomprehending ears.

And then, on the eve of a 1989 tour, I bought a load of cassettes for my Walkman  one of which happened to be Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. From the moment track two hit the headphones, my complacent postpunk musical world was blown apart for ever.

Bring the Noise was obviously music, yet devoid of musical instruments. It was obviously a song, but devoid of melody. It was as catchy as a pop tune, but devoid of compromise. It was unlike any record I’d ever experienced: a hurricane